J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and French ... > Holland Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Colton's Gate and the Roman Lighthouse at Dover Castle, from the South-West 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Colton's Gate and the Roman Lighthouse at Dover Castle, from the South-West’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 260 Verso:
Colton’s Gate and the Roman Lighthouse at Dover Castle, from the South-West 1825
D19357
Turner Bequest CCXIV 260a
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 155 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, as identified in general terms by Finberg,1 the octagonal first-century Roman lighthouse (or ‘pharos’) within the precincts of Dover Castle is seen to the north-east beyond the similar profile of the medieval Colton’s Gate, looking up the steep incline of what is now Mortimer Road. The ancient lighthouse is shown from the south with the adjacent church of St Mary in Castro on the recto (D19356).
This is among nearly forty consecutive pages towards the end of this sketchbook devoted to aspects of Dover and its castle (folios 253 verso–272 verso; D19343–D19381). For Turner’s many other views there in this sketchbook and elsewhere, see under folio 2 recto (D18843).

Matthew Imms
September 2020

1
See Finberg 1909, II, p.661.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Colton’s Gate and the Roman Lighthouse at Dover Castle, from the South-West 1825 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2020, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-coltons-gate-and-the-roman-lighthouse-at-dover-castle-from-r1202709, accessed 06 June 2025.